Coach confident Kane-Scheifs-Wheels line to live up to potential

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This article was published 24/09/2014 (4012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It will be anything but a secret weapon but the Winnipeg Jets will reunite a line combination tonight against the Edmonton Oilers that could hold the key to much of the optimism they carry for the 2014-15 season.

If the trio of second-year centre Mark Scheifele with left-winger Evander Kane and right-winger Blake Wheeler can live up to what seems to be obvious potential, then the Jets will have more than one line that can be counted on to score and will make them — judge for yourself how much — tougher to play against.

It’s a combination Jets coach Paul Maurice used briefly after taking over last January, one he wanted to see more of but was blocked from doing so by injuries to Kane and Scheifele.

They spent four games together in late January and accounted for six goals and five assists.

“I think it’s really important that we have some consistency in what we’re doing,” Maurice said Tuesday. “I never got to see what I wanted to see last year. When Evander was injured and came out, we had four games, Anaheim, Chicago, San Jose and (Toronto) and we went 3-1 with a 1-0 loss to San Jose.

“So I was excited about that but we were still learning about Mark and he was still learning what we want to ask of him. And then the injuries, and Mark went down and we never got a consistent run.”

Wheeler and Scheifele certainly seemed like a good pair for a time last season, creating some four-on-four chemistry that yielded dividends.

A fit for Kane would be a dream for an underachieving team and the coach promised to be patient to see if it can work.

“Yes,” Maurice began. “I say that to you now. That’s the plan. No line has every stayed together the whole year. You’re going to move people around. But I don’t want to be moving individuals around every single night. We’re trying to find the right mix.”

He offered the usual caveats about desperate game situations and mistakes but in the end, wound up saying, “I’m going to give those guys some room.”

The participants do seem eager to give it a go.

‘We have to be patient and need to let the game come to us. If we play solid defensively and solid in the neutral zone, we’re going to get chances… but when you start pressing and try to create offence out of thin air, that’s when you get into trouble’

— Blake Wheeler

Kane, 23, seemed quite happy about the possibilities last week after actual practice time with Scheifele and Wheeler

Wheeler, 28 and the team’s leading scorer last season, is already looking past the obvious in terms of what this line could be.

“I think (we have to) just play correctly and be patient,” he said Tuesday. “That’s the biggest thing with three guys that can skate like we do. We have to be patient and need to let the game come to us. If we play solid defensively and solid in the neutral zone, we’re going to get chances, we’re going to get the opportunities we want.

“Those things are going to come but when you start pressing and try to create offence out of thin air, that’s when you get into trouble.”

Scheifele, the 21-year-old with just 74 NHL games under his belt, said it goes well beyond just “filling the net,” — the question he was asked.

“Obviously it would be good if we filled the net but the big thing is to buckle down defensively,” he said. “The thing for our line is to be reliable, to keep on building as a line to be a reliable line and let the offence come. To play good D and let the offence come from there.”

Maurice will be counselling just those things.

“I think he’s just trying to keep us patient,” Wheeler reported about what the coach has been saying. “That’s the biggest thing with us. Once we have the puck, playing in the offensive zone, things are going to happen. Just be responsible out there. We’re going to be getting some looks from some other teams’ top players to start and we need to play correctly in our zone. If we do a good job of that, things will take care of themselves.”

If anything at all goes on between these three, you can expect plenty of attention from opponents. And Maurice is already looking that far ahead.

“Mark, whether he takes that now or next year or whenever it happens, that eventually is going to be his job, playing against the other teams’ best head to head all night,” the coach said. “And we have to get those three guys understanding that it’s not all, ‘let’s see how fast we can skate.’

“They’ve done that. I’ve liked what I’ve seen.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca